TinyAny slave ship worth its salt needs a good brig. But there's an issue with supply. As far as I know, Imperial authorities shut down the last franchise of Dan's Slave Ship Emporium and Supply Depot about fifteen years ago, and there hasn't been a good...
I Know Where You're FromTime bleeds away in scattered moments, one blink to the next. The thrumming of a circulator fan beside my head becomes a counterpoint to my own heartbeat -- one constant thing in a world that won't hold still. It's hard to get a sense of presence from...
Tough TalkMeatbrick wanders out, muttering about "recapitulated tempura kittens" ... or whatever abortion of enunciation sounds like "recapitulated" when it falls out of his mouth, given his clearly limited vocabulary. I'm left staring down...
One of the Old ClansThey take me someplace that reeks of machine oil and old bourbon, bind me up in a sleep sack and velcro me to the wall. It's from that vantage that I begin to acquaint myself with my new surroundings -- albeit with a glacial slowness. It takes forever...
Jackpot!"Well, well. Would you look at that, Jack! We bagged ourselves a little fishy on ice!" You know you're in dire straits when a voice like that sounds angelic. Big. Gravelly. A lot of other adjectives that shouldn't apply to the sound...
Everyone's a Winner! (Except You)Something I've learned, hot-rodding around on godforsaken ice moons, is that the Scarab SRV is one epic piece of crap. Made from the finest tinfoil and tissue paper a shoestring budget can afford, cobbled together with bailing wire and cut-rate bubble...
Bask HarderAll right, you idiot. Time to stop thinking so much and ... think! I need a signal. And that means I need power. There's got to be some juice left in this bucket of bolts. I already shut down all the big systems ... and most of the little ones....
Rats!Desperation makes people stupid. It makes me stupid, anyway, to the point that I'm now huddled up against a freezing canopy, pounding on the glass and yelling as though I don't realize sound doesn't carry in a vacuum. "Hey! Hey I'm alive in...
Out of GasIt's in moments like these that whole lifetimes can be measured in heartbeats. You track the passing seconds by the time it takes your breath to turn to frost on the canopy glass. There's a certain, morbid fascination to it -- the way the ice crystals...
The things you find, out in the black....So ... ran into something strange today. Some ship. Not one I recognize. I think it must have been one of those Patreus pledges -- you know the type. The ones who like to wear costumes and throw key parties in their mothers' basements. Purries, I...
